A Reflection on my Fanfiction "This Thing of Ours"

Stephanie Meyer, in an interview with Little Brown discusses the difficult process she goes through during the editing of her novels: “cutting things down is just brutal. It's like cutting off your fingers every time you lose a word (Meyer, 2016).” This was the same difficulty I embarked on throughout the writing of my Fanfiction piece due to having to consider the 2,500-word count. 

Meyer’s, Twilight tells the tale of the love story between vampire Edward Cullen and high school student, Bella Swan but it also introduces the audience to the rich history these vampires possess. In my fanfiction the aim was to capture the theme of family and hierarchy that is heavily prevalent within the Twilight trilogy. I demonstrated this by deciding to follow through with an Alternate Universe (fan fiction type) that allowed me to completely flip the narrative of twilight whilst still keeping those core themes of togetherness, family and power. 

These three themes are also prevalent in any Mob story and the idea of combining the Volturi with the Cullens in this setting seemed achievable. Originally, I had planned to centre my fan fiction on an epic shoot-out between these two families but quickly realised that I wanted the audience to be able to connect with the characters, Edward in particular. 

 Becoming a made man within the Mafia is a huge ordeal, similar to Twilight with the turning of a human into vampire. This inspired me to include an Initiation as the forefront of my fan fiction piece giving the readers the chance to see a familiar character delve into the process of becoming a made man. Creating a Mob universe was challenging at first, especially when it came to allocating roles. The absence of female characters was also something I debated when writing Twilight, however I chose to do this to reiterate the masculinity dominated within the Mob world. 

I attempted to subvert the original text through abandoning the love story between Bella and Edward. This was a difficult decision for me as I knew how integral it was to the story. I managed to counteract this however by focussing on the relationship between the Cullens, most importantly Edward and his father and allowing that to drive the emotion within the story. In the original text there is suggestion to some hostility between Edward and his father, Carlisle within Edward’s younger years as a vampire and so I decided to explore this within my fan fiction. 

To conclude, I believe my fanfiction piece successfully portrays a small depiction of what it is like to be within the Mob world. Although at times struggling with characterisation as the aim is to stay as true to the characters as possible, I enjoyed breaking the barriers of Twilight and introducing these opulent characters to a new playing field. 

Brown and Company, L. (2016). Stephanie Meyer Talks #THECHEMIST with Rainbow Rowell [Image]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmEkOhp5buQ